By Randal Edgar
Providence Journal
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — In a letter sent last month to the state Department of Corrections, the U.S. Department of Justice said its investigation of hiring at the Corrections Department centers around job applicant tests that do not measure the “knowledge, skills and abilities” needed to work as a correctional officer.
Those tests have screened out roughly 33 percent of white applicants since 2000, while screening out far more minority candidates: about 59 percent of African-American applicants and 67 percent of Hispanic applicants, according to the letter, provided to The Providence Journal this week in response to an open records request.
“An employer, of course, is not prohibited from using selection procedures that cause adverse impact if it can demonstrate that the procedures validly predict an applicant’s ability to perform the job,” the Justice Department says in the letter, dated Nov. 26. “Where, however, an employer cannot make this showing, it has unnecessarily limited its applicant pool without gaining the ability to distinguish between qualified and unqualified candidates.”
Full story: Justice Department questions testing of applicants for R.I. corrections officer jobs